As with most other ideologies, there are many advantages and disadvantages to communism. However, there are many aspects of it that I doubt I’ll ever understand. For example, North Korea recently doctored a photo taken during Kim Jong-il’s funeral procession.

The top photo was taken by Kyodo News, while the one at the bottom was released by the Korean Central News Agency.

Can you spot the differences? Take a closer look at the bottom left portion on both photos. You’ll notice that a bunch of people have been edited out by the forces that be. As a result of the photo editing, news agencies EPA, AFP, and Reuters have all issues kill orders against publishing the photo.

Here’s a magnified image of the edited section:

I doubt anyone will ever find out the real reason as to why the people were edited out of the photo. However, here’s the take of the New York Times as posted in their blog:

A side-by-side comparison of the full images does point to a possibly banal explanation: totalitarian aesthetics. With the men straggling around the sidelines, a certain martial perfection is lost. Without the men, the tight black bands of the crowd on either side look railroad straight.